Crying shame over cartoon

Published on 03/06/2012 00:00

BRIAN Adcock’s cartoon in Scotland on Sunday (27 May) showed a lachrymose Alex Salmond heading out on the road to Independence, against a “shortbread tin” backdrop of mountains, heather and bagpipes. This was clearly a snide dig at the First Minister’s show of emotion at the launch of the Yes campaign, while implying that backward-looking sentiment rather than hard-headed economics underlay his vision.

However, as Patrick Harvie eloquently argued (on BBC1’s Big Debate the same day), independence is about more that “would I be better off?”. An independent Scotland, he suggested, while probably being economically viable (though allowing that predictions were futile) would also be a fairer, greener society, with emphasis on quality of life as much as individual prosperity. Tears aroused by such a vision should surely not be mocked.

Ross Laidlaw, Dunbar